The Art and Science of Personality Development

Drawing on state-of-the-art personality and developmental research, this book presents a new and broadly integrative theory of how people come to be who they are over the life course. Preeminent researcher Dan P. McAdams traces the development of three distinct layers of personality--the social actor who expresses emotional and behavioral traits, the motivated agent who pursues goals and values, and the autobiographical author who constructs a personal story. Highly readable and accessible to scholars and students at all levels, the book uses rich portraits of the lives of famous people to illustrate theoretical concepts and empirical findings.

See also the Handbook of Personality Development, edited by Dan P. McAdams, Rebecca L. Shiner, and Jennifer L. Tackett.

Autorentext

Dan P. McAdams, PhD, Department of Psychology, School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University

Inhalt

Prologue I. Becoming an Actor 1. In the Beginning 2. The Actor Takes the Stage: How We Perform Emotion 3. The Problem of Self-Regulation 4. The Actor Grows Up: How Traits Develop into Adulthood II. Becoming an Agent 5. The Age 5-7 Shift 6. The Motivational Agenda: What Agents Want 7. How Values Shape Agency: Morality, Religion, and Politics III. Becoming an Author 8. The Stories We Live By 9. Generative Lives, Redemptive Life Stories 10. The Sense of an Ending